


Generals of Grimm - Intermissions

by Punisher143



Series: Generals of Grimm [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Occasional Hard language, Writing Prompt Wednesday, one shots of dubious canonicity, story prompt dump ground
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27052072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punisher143/pseuds/Punisher143
Summary: Sometimes the Writing Prompt Wednesdays on the RWBY subreddit lets me make a little one shot set in the Generals universe. Those will go here because I'm kind of iffy on whether or not they'll actually be canonical.
Series: Generals of Grimm [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579060
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Holiday special

The holidays have come once again to the Kingdom of Vale, this one special for being the first one together for Team STRQ. With a holiday break they decided to go to Taiyang’s house at Patch, celebrating with his folks there. Taiyang and, surprisingly for the defrosting leader, Summer were really getting into the swing of things as they helped decorate the house, Summer’s Blinking proving useful in decorating the outside of the house. Qrow, being his indifferent self, just sort of stood around chatting and occasionally handing an ornament before getting bored and wandering off to do the same thing somewhere else.

Raven, naturally, was being her usual grumpy self while she held the lights that Taiyang and Summer were currently putting up on the house. Granted the attitude was mostly due to her displeasure at having to wear one of those ridiculous sweaters that only come around during this season and because Zwei was intensely focused on running laps around her, but details.

“Come on Raven, at least smile a little during all this,” Taiyang said once all the lights were up and he moved to plug them in.

“I hate this fucking sweater,” Raven said simply.

“Swear Jar!” Summer shouted and Blinked down to her partner, “Watch your language Raven. It’s the holidays after all.” Raven waved away a few petals that got too close to her and crossed her arms.

“Like I care. Why should I bother caring about the holidays, I never celebrated them before.”

“You’ve been missing out then,” Taiyang said walking over to the girls. “Decorations, presents, food and bad holiday movies. It’s a whole mood.” Taiyang’s fell a little and he crossed his arms as he added, “Though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering how you and Qrow were raised.”

“Let’s not talk about that ok?” Raven said shaking her head. She rested a hand on her hip as she added, “Well whatever, I’m stuck here so I might as well try and enjoy it. I doubt I will though.”

“That’s the spirit,” Summer said nodding just as she noticed a snowflake float past her to the ground. The trio and Corgi looked up at the sky as more snow fell down around them, Taiyang naturally trying to catch some on his tongue as they did so.

“Aren’t you guys cold?” Qrow asked as he walked over to his team, adjusting his scarf as he did so. “I know I’m cold.”

“Well maybe if you didn’t wear the same outfit all the time, you wouldn’t be cold,” Summer said and laughed when Qrow scowled at her in response. She looked back up at the snowfall and her expression turned a little more downcast as it went on until she sighed sadly and looked down at the ground. “Honestly, I hope we all do enjoy this,” she said crossing her arms and, at the curious looks from her team, continued with, “It’s the first time I’ve looked forward to the holidays in a long time.”

“You didn’t care for them either?” Raven asked.

“I didn’t have anyone to celebrate _with_ , loner tendencies aside.”

Taiyang blinked at that and had to look away from Summer’s somber face. Even though they had been a team for only a relatively short time they did manage to get close enough to open up a bit about their respective pasts, enough to know that his teammates were hurting a lot more than they let on. They all had lost their loved ones to the Grimm and all shut themselves off into their own little worlds, away from the hurt and focusing almost entirely on their anger and hatred of Remnant’s top predators. Once he realized just how deep those wounds were, Taiyang had been trying his hardest to bring a bit of joy into their lives. Even if it was through the occasional dumb joke or good natured flirt.

Taiyang shared a glance with Zwei and nodded to himself and moved next to Summer, wrapping an arm around the smaller girl’s shoulder and bringing her in closer despite her yelp of surprise. “Well don’t you worry about that, Mom and Pop always like having people around even outside the holidays. They’ll give you ten years of spoiling in a week if you wanted them too.” Summer blinked at that and started laughing to herself, her smile a genuine happy one.

“I wouldn’t ask that of them, but it does sound nice,” Summer said and laughed even harder when Taiyang ruffled her hair. “Stop that!”

_‘Yes, another victory for joke master Taiyang!’_

“You’re such a sap,” Raven complained shaking her head and crossing her arms.

“What, you want some love too Raven?” Taiyang joked holding an arm open for Raven.

“No.”

“Another time then.” _‘Still working on that one. Oh well, at least she’s wearing the sweater.’_

“Hey kids!” Taiyang’s mother shouted from the house, standing in the door waving an arm to get their attention, “Stop freezing your butts and get in here! I made fresh cookies!”

“Xiao Long cookies, yes!” Summer cheered and tore away from Taiyang, Blinking the short distance to the house and squeezing past the woman into the house and ignoring how loudly she laughed at her eagerness.

“You know, if she makes more of those, it might motivate me enough to actually help out more,” Qrow said and skulked to the house in his usual slouched manner.

“Same,” Raven agreed and followed after her brother. Taiyang watched the twins disappear into the house with Zwei following Raven closely, smiling the whole way before looking up at the overcast skies.

_‘One day at a time, right? Hopefully we can do this again next year,’_ he thought before running to the house. If he didn’t hurry, Summer would devour all of Mom’s cookies and he wouldn’t have that.

* * *

Far from the Kingdoms, deep in the uncharted parts of the Remnant, the Generals of Grimm were having an important discussion.

“No no, put that little Beowolf on the other side Yang! You’re throwing off the whole aesthetic!” Weiss said forcefully holding her hands up in a square frame as Yang decorated a pine tree.

“Who cares, it’s a tree! We’re the only ones in this castle who care about this anyway!” Yang replied angrily while putting the Beowolf where Weiss indicated. “And why am _I_ the only one doing anything with this tree.”

“Presentation matters you barbarian! How many times do I have to tell you that!? And you’re not, Blake is helping as well.”

“With _one thing!_ ” Yang shouted and pointed at Blake, who was standing off to the side holding a large red star delicately in her tentacles.

“And it’s the most important part Yang,” Blake said lightly shaking the star, “I will put this adorable tree topper on and you won’t take it from me!”

“Whatever, you’re both getting on my nerves!” Yang stepped away from the three, enlarged her Grimm arm, and lowered her stance. “I’m just about ready to throw claws here!”

“I’d like to see you try!” Weiss returned forming two glyphs in her hands.

“ENOUGH!” Weiss and Yang flinched and looked to the doorway where Ruby was standing with a disapproving look, with tiny ornaments in both her hands. “You’re supposed to be decorating, not fighting. Stop acting like children!”

“…She started it,” Weiss grumbled dispelling her glyphs.

“What!?” Yang returned angrily.

“I don’t care who started it, _I’ll finish it!_ ” Ruby interrupted again and moved in between the two Grimm, flicking Yang on the nose as she did so. The blonde general rolled her eyes and shrunk her arm down to normal. “Good girl, now give me your horns.” Yang did so, lowering her head so Ruby could loop two gingerbread man ornaments around her horns before standing back up. Ruby then turned and did the same thing with Weiss, looping a snowflake around her singular horn.

Lastly Ruby carefully hung two candy canes near the base of her horns, grinning widely at how they swung at the top of her vision, and tuned to the only hornless member of the group. “Sorry Blake, I wasn’t sure what to give you for-“

“As long as I put this star up, I’ll be happy,” Blake interrupted holding up the tree topper. Ruby blinked and looked at the tree, taking the whole thing in for a moment, before nodding and smiling at Blake.

“Looks good to me! Go ahead.” Though her expression didn’t change from what she could see, Ruby was sure that Blake was smiling widely under her mask as she moved to the tree and carefully put the star on the tree, her tentacles nudging it a little until it was set perfectly. She then beamed happily while holding the tips of her tentacles together close to her face as she backed up to her sister Generals.

“Post modern asymmetry,” Weiss said looking the tree over before nodding approvingly, “I like it.”

“Told you so,” Yang said with a smirk.

“What?” The new voice caught the General’s attention and they turned around to see Cinder and, more importantly, Salem just enter the room. The General’s all snapped to attention, saluting Salem with an arm (or tentacle) behind their back and the other over their chest.

“At ease,” Salem said simply and moved over to them, her usual demeanor unbroken while Cinder walked next to her with visible confusion. “So this is where you’ve been all day.”

“We’ve… been around,” Ruby answered as she dropped the salute, “the tree just came last.”

“You celebrate the holidays?” Cinder asked looking over the tree with some mild disgust mixed in with her confusion. “Why? And how did you get a pine tree here?”

“And _who_ exactly did you decorate it with?” Salem asked as well. The Generals looked back at the tree and its decorations, which _may_ have used some poor soul for some of the more intricate decorations. They looked back and shrugged.

“I’unno,” Ruby answered for them all and added, “and we thought the blood would add to the charm.”

“That’s disgusting,” Cinder said.

“ _You’re_ disgusting!” Yang rebutted angrily.

“Enough,” Salem interrupted putting a stop to any argument between them. “While I don’t particularly like the holidays, I won’t stop anyone’s personal celebrations of them. That is, as long as _this_ tree is all that you’ve added your own… personal decorations with. I do not want ants in the castle.”

“Of course Queen,” Ruby nodded.

“And despite the time of year, we still have work to do. Come to the throne room so we can discuss Vale. The new school year is only a few months away.” The Generals all nodded and Salem turned to leave the room, leaving Cinder and the Generals on their own.

“That went better than expected,” Blake commented.

“Indeed,” Weiss agreed, “and it may just be me, but I think she’s a little more accepting of our celebrations lately.”

“You think she’ll let me put decorations in her hair?” Ruby asked excitedly, only to be immediately shot down by her sisters and Cinder with a resounding ‘No.’ Ruby then pouted and said, “You guys are no fun.”

“This is still an interesting bit of knowledge about you all, disgusting as it is,” Cinder added while trying to tear her gaze away from an eye on the tree.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something else Cinder, like failing to get Maiden powers?” Weiss asked.

“They had a heavy machine gun!”

“That wouldn’t have stopped us,” Blake added, no doubt smirking under her mask.

“Well pardon me for being human!”

“And that’s why you failed,” Yang finished smiling a sharp smile and leaned forward toward Cinder, “Whatcha gonna do about it?” Cinder scowled at them for a moment before taking a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose, and turning away from the Generals.

“I’m not letting you get to me, I have better things to do, have fun,” Cinder said and walked out of the room while trying to ignore the chuckles from the Generals.

“She doesn’t blow up as often as she used to, don’t you think?” Yang asked getting a nod from Weiss and Blake while Ruby looked contemplative at the door. “Is something up Ruby?”

“It just occurred to me that if Queen didn’t like our tree, she _definitely_ won’t like what I did to the throne room,” Ruby answered looking at her sisters looked at each other and back at her in concern.

“What did you do?” Weiss asked.

“…Overdecorated.”

“RUBY! WHAT DID YOU DO IN HERE!?” Salem’s voice echoed through the castle and no doubt she was on her way to where the Generals were.

“… To the pools,” Ruby said.

“Through the window!” Yang shouted before running to a window and jumping through it, with Ruby right behind her followed by Weiss and Blake. During the fall and subsequent dash to one of the Grimm Pools, Ruby couldn’t help but wonder why Salem would be so mad about the throne room, considering the decorations she put in her room.

_‘Maybe I should lay low for a good while.’_


	2. Spring Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally written for r/RWBY WPW 180.

Another week of vacation had come around and, as much as Raven would like to complain about spending that vacation on Patch _again_ , she ultimately did not when she found out they would be spending most of it on the beach. Her urge to complain was reduced to zero when she saw that Patch’s beaches were actually really good, so on day two of their vacation Raven led the charge with Taiyang to the beach with Summer and Qrow being semi-reluctant to join in.

Unlike her teammates who were more than happy to do anything physical, Raven was content with just sunbathing under an umbrella for the duration of the day. At least she would if everyone would stop bothering her about every little thing. “Put on sunscreen. Make sure your umbrella is far enough away from the water. Isn’t that bikini a little too much?” It was really starting to get on her nerves.

“Hey Raven,” Taiyang called out. Raven sighed and sat up in her chair as Taiyang walked up to her.

_‘If this isn’t important, not even those swim trunks will save him from my wrath.’_ “What do you want Tai?”

“Have you seen Summer anywhere? She just kind of vanished a while ago.”

“No I haven’t. And why come to me with this instead of looking for her yourself, I’m not your personal tracking device.”

“I know that, it’s just… well you know how she gets whenever she’s at the beach. And we’re supposed to be relaxing as a team right? We should be doing that instead of our own thing.”

“You’re saying this as if I care,” Raven replied and lay back down, “Let Summer do what she wants, I’m not her nanny and I have more important things to do anyway. She can find her way back easily enough anyway.”

“More important things; like what, failing to get a tan? You’re always that pale no matter how much sun you get!”

“Ok, I just got something important to do: beating your ass into the sand!”

“It’d be a great change of pace!”

“OH FU-“ Qrow suddenly shouted followed quickly by a loud splash of water. Raven could only sigh and slowly tilt down her sunglasses as she looked out at the water.

“He just got sucked into a riptide, didn’t he?”

“Yep, it looks like it,” Taiyang replied. Raven shook her head and moved her sunglasses to the top of her head.

“Tell you what, you take care of that for me and I’ll go find our leader and make sure she won’t suffer the same fate. Deal?”

“Why do I have to walk into a riptide!?” Taiyang protested and Raven replied by opening a portal with a snap of her fingers and walking through it, leaving Taiyang staring at the blank space with an angry growl.

“Help! An octopus is trying to drag me under!” Qrow shouted in the split second he was able to surface before a tentacle dragged him down.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

* * *

Raven emerged on a stretch of beach that didn’t seem very far from where she had left and found Summer staring at the ocean. Raven rolled her eyes and walked over to stand next to her, half wondering if Summer had noticed her appearance with the hood of the jacket she wore over her white one-piece over her head as it was. Raven had only stopped for a few seconds before Summer turned to her and brushed some hair out of her eyes.

“You guys were worried about me again?” she asked.

“Tai was, but I knew you’d just be doing this again,” Raven replied and crossed her arms, “and before you ask, I just needed to get away from Qrow for a little while.” Summer sighed and shook her head before turning back to the ocean.

“And why would that be? What did he do?”

“Somehow spawned a riptide.” The two girls were quiet for a moment until Summer broke out into a giggle fit.

“That’s awful!” she said trying to hide a guilty smile, “the least you could have done was help him a little before finding me.”

“And get sucked in with him? No thanks. Qrow’s been worse off anyway, he’ll be fine by the time we get back.”

“One of these days you’re going to be wrong about that.”

“I’ll give him some chocolate the day I am. So, what’s your reason for staring at the ocean this time?” The smile dropped from Summer’s face and she looked down to where the waves crashed against the shore.

“I just needed to get my thoughts in order. A lot of things have been happening ever since Mistral and… it’s just a lot to take in.”

“Tell me about it,” Raven said with a sigh and sat down on the sand, “you never really expect to suddenly get dragged into a battle for the fate of the world all of a sudden. Honestly I was hoping to get away from all of that for at least the week you know?”

“Sorry,” Summer said and crouched down, “I’ve tried putting it out of my mind, but it just wouldn’t leave. That’s why I came out here to sort it out I guess.” Summer sighed and rubbed her eyes, “What are we going to do?”

“Right now? Not much we can do. As little an opinion I have of Ozpin I doubt he’d just throw us on the frontlines for no reason. Lucky for him too, because then I actually might kill him if he tried.”

“Please don’t.” Summer pushed herself up and stretched her arms over her head. “But I guess you are right, no use worrying about evil witches right now. We still have other problems to tend to. Very organized problems.”

“Yep,” Raven said and pushed herself up to her feet with a grunt, “But again, let’s ignore those for now. We’re supposed to be relaxing, you know?”

“I know, sorry. You think we can do that smashing watermelons thing, that’d be fun.”

“That’s a waste of watermelon.” Raven paused and rubbed her chin thoughtfully and added, “But maybe we could make a good prank for Tai if we buried Qrow up to his neck in sand and put a watermelon husk over his head.”

“Speaking of, we should probably go make sure the boys are alright. Because if they are, they’re probably going to be really mad.”

“Pfft, I can handle them. But yeah, we probably should.”

* * *

In the darkest corner of the world, Salem was traversing her castle’s halls looking for her Generals. _Again_. Not for the first time did Salem regret giving them as much free reign as she had and was debating how much she would have to rein them in again when her path crossed with Hazel.

“Your Grace,” Hazel said while giving a respectful nod.

“Hazel. Have you seen any of my Generals today? They appear to be eluding me again.”

“I saw General Weiss going to the pool some time ago. I haven’t seen any of the others today.”

“…What pool?” Salem and Hazel stood in silence for a moment until he sighed.

“It would appear that the Generals have made additions to the castle without your knowing again.” By now Salem really should expect the Generals to do something like this all the time, and yet every time she’s taken aback when she finds out about what they do out of her sight.

_‘At least they are always making things other than_ destroying _things,’_ Salem reasoned and said, “Show me to this pool so I can see for myself.” Hazel nodded and led Salem through the halls toward the western end of the castle. Soon Hazel stopped in front of a balcony and Salem walked through the doorway only to stop when she saw just what her Generals had put together.

“Hazel, you may leave,” Salem said and looked back enough to see Hazel leaving before turning back to her Generals’ latest handiwork. The pool was about the size of a standard community pool and, to Salem’s surprise, was filled with water and not blood as she had expected. As of right now only Ruby, Weiss, and Yang were there though Salem was sure Blake would come soon enough.

Though exactly _what_ they were doing was not what Salem had expected.

“Come on Ruby, you can do it!” Yang said encouragingly as she held Ruby’s hands. The two of them were in the shallow end of the pool doing what Salem could only assume was helping Ruby learn how to swim, if the way the smaller Grimm flailed in the water was any indication.

_‘I thought she already knew how to swim,’_ Salem thought as she looked over at Weiss doing a much different activity considering that half of the pool was frozen and she was skating on the ice. Salem looked between Weiss’ elegant movements and Ruby flailing and was once again at a loss for words.

“You found out about the pool Queen?” Salem looked back at Blake as she walked out onto the deck with a coffee mug in her tentacles.

“It’s always a matter of time before I find out about what you all do,” Salem answered calmly and looked back at the pool. “So what brought this about?”

“Yang heard about something called ‘spring break’ on the internet and decided to act on it,” Blake explained and took a drink from the mug (through the mask, Salem noted and then quickly discarded) and loosely gestured around them. “That was about two weeks ago and we got all this done not that long ago.”

“You- no, I’d much rather not know.”

“WEISS! Stay on your side of the pool!” Yang shouted as Weiss’ ice platform edged a little too close to her.

“It’s a big pool, I can do what I want!” Weiss returned.

“At least you know what’s important General,” Salem said looking at Blake just as she tossed the mug over her shoulder where it shattered against the wall.

“Of course I do Queen. You have to plan to do the perfect cannonball, you can’t just jump in.”

“That’s exact… wait, what?” Salem’s question wasn’t answered as Blake shot her tentacles up to the roof where they wrapped around two parapets and she pulled herself up to brace her feet against it. Salem and the other Generals saw the wild look in Blake’s eyes and knew what was coming next.

“Yang...?” Ruby asked.

“It’s too late to do anything Ruby,” Yang returned and hugged the smaller Grimm closely.

“Blake, think about this!” Weiss shouted up and was promptly ignored when Blake pushed off the roof and curled up into a ball before she hit the water’s surface.

The cannonball was indeed great as the impact caused a large column of water to shoot up and crash around the area. Weiss’ ice platform was mostly destroyed as a result, though the General herself had managed to get to solid ground. Ruby, Yang, and Blake however were now floating in a half filled pool with the instigator of the chaos very happy despite how soaked she was.

“Good job Blake,” Yang said flatly, though still very much impressed.

“I try,” the Faunus Grimm returned.

“Uh, Queen, are you ok?” Ruby shouted up and was rewarded with something that caused all the Generals to freeze. Salem, completely drenched and with her hair washed straight down, stared at each of them with cold fury etched on her face. She silently took a hold of her dress and wringed out some water from it before turning around and walking back into the castle.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Weiss said.

“She’s pissed,” Yang added.

“To the Pools,” Ruby commanded and she, Blake, and Yang scrambled out of the pool and off the balcony with Weiss already having a sizable head start.


End file.
